The Tongue

The tongue is wet, slithery, smooth. It is a muscle that forms sounds, tastes food, packages food into a blob and then moves it to the throat for swallowing. It communicates.

Once there was a word. It was a nasty little word.

A word that shouldn’t be heard.

In the beginning, the word was just a thought. Just curvy lines, straight lines and maybe a dot. But it was there.

And it moved through the brain and down into the spinal cord. It met some wild feelings and got all mixed together. It could’ve stayed there, but it wanted to escape. There were no brain guards in place to stop it.

So it moved…No! It flew! With lightning fast speed it flew toward the mouth. It landed on the tongue. The tongue began to move. It rolled in the mouth. It heaved and pointed and turned.

And then…out came that nasty little word!

It flew through the air and landed smack onto an ear. It went into that ear, down the tube and into the brain.

That brain was forever changed.

We put a small piece of metal in the mouth of a horse to make it obey us. We can control the whole animal with it.  And how about ships? They are very big. They are driven along by strong winds. But they are steered by a very small rudder. It makes them go where the captain wants to go.  In the same way, the tongue is a small part of a person’s body. But it talks big. Think about how a small spark can set a big forest on fire.

James 3:3-5